


Soaring, Crashing

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, doting Evie, stuck-in-bed Mal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 21:50:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11975739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: Flying was not Mal's strong suit.  Thankfully, gloating wasn't Evie's.





	Soaring, Crashing

**Author's Note:**

> from an anonymous request on tumblr

Evie hadn’t had much time to get used to this sight, and truthfully, even if she had weeks, months,  _years_ , she didn’t think she’d ever really get used to it.  
  
Her best friend was flying, soaring through a crystal clear sky on wings of amethyst, bending the treetops with each swooping pass she made over the top of the forest.  Evie’s best friend was a dragon.  No big deal.

It came so easily and naturally to Mal the first time; giant sea witch attacks Auradon Prep’s cotillion?  Transform into a dragon. Easy peasy. Mal didn’t even know a thing like that was hereditary.  The next couple times weren’t so easy peasy.  Apparently, without the drive and motivation from having massive cephalopods threatening her friends and her school, Mal as a dragon was unfocused, ungraceful, and honestly?  Clumsy.  
  
Flying practice was needed.  Hence, a transfixed Evie watching the skies as Mal circled around and around.  Mal tilted her wings, angled herself to fly a little lower as she made another pass over Evie.  
  
“Doing great, Mal!” Evie cupped her hands around her mouth to yell as Mal flew by.  
  
Wow, this sure was a sight to see.  It was funny, actually.  Maleficent as a dragon incited pure terror, a freezing fear rooted deeply in the center of one’s chest like a stabbing icicle.  And yet, her  _daughter_ as a dragon was the picture of wonder, majesty, even beauty.  Evie felt like she could watch this all day.  
  
Mal widened her radius on the next go, startling a flock of birds from their meeting place within the trees.  Evie heard the caws, the chirps, the rustle of feathers before she saw the little flyers they belonged to, and in the split-second before they burst onto the scene she envisioned an even more picture perfect image in her mind’s eye—Mal, happy and carefree against a canvas of blue and birds.  Something straight out of a painting that Mal perhaps would like to paint herself.  
  
Only, the reality turned out a lot differently than Evie imagined.  
  
The birds sprang from the trees in a cloud of black, shooting up right into Mal’s path.  Reflexively, not realizing that being a  _giant dragon_ sort of gave her free reign of the skies and anything that got in her way would just bounce right off of her, Mal swerved sharply to the right to avoid crashing headfirst into the flock.  It would have been all well and good, if being unfocused, ungraceful, and clumsy hadn’t meant Mal’s sudden veer sent her spiraling out of control, unable to right herself.  Evie remained transfixed—but this time, not in a good way—as Mal lost her lift and barreled right into the treetops, snapping branches here and breaking trunks there before plowing into the ground just yards away from where Evie stood.  The earth shook with the force of her fall, almost toppling Evie, and a plume of dust and dirt ghosted up around the fallen dragon.  
  
“Mal!!” Evie cried out.  It felt like her feet had already started running before she even told them to.  
  
When she reached her, the plume of dirt had wafted away, only to be replaced by a thick cloud of purple smoke obscuring the entirety of Mal’s form.  When the smoke cleared, the dragon was gone; a battered and bruised teenager had taken its place.  
  
“Wow…” Mal coughed weakly, laying facedown on the ground.  "Let’s just pretend you didn’t see that.“  
  
When Evie saw that Mal was clearly okay enough to joke, a relieved sigh escaped her and she knelt down beside her best friend.  
  
"Not your best landing,” she agreed, brushing twigs and leaves out of Mal’s hair.  "Are you alright?“  
  
"I guess so.  Ego’s a little worse for the wear, but aside from that…”  
  
Mal planted her hands flat to brace her weight, then went to push herself upright. A good plan, except for the part where the movement wrenched a sharp cry of pain from her and sent her collapsing onto her side with another cry.  
  
“Mal??” one of Evie’s hands went to Mal’s shoulder and the other fluttered wildly, unsure of where to go.    
  
“Okay, that’s not good,” Mal panted.  
  
“What is it, what hurts??”  
  
“My side…” Mal answered, jerking her head to indicate it was the side she was laying on.  
  
Carefully, ever so carefully, Evie helped her roll onto her back so she could have a better look.  Mal’s shirt was torn and frayed where her dragon form had skidded along the ground, and through the shreds Evie could see that the skin underneath was red and scraped.  
  
“Okay, come on, let’s get you over to the Vespa and back to Auradon.”  
  
Evie took both of Mal’s hands, held them tightly as she tried to pull her into a sitting position, only to be met with a pained hiss and Mal’s fingers squeezing hers even tighter.  
  
“Evie, no, this really hurts,” she whimpered, not at all pleased that she’d been reduced to whimpering.  
  
“I know, M, I know.  But just bear with me, we have to get you back to school so someone can look at you.  I’ll help you stand up, okay? On three.”  
  
Mal nodded slowly, and bit down on her lower lip as Evie counted down and then hoisted her onto her feet in a blinding flash of pain shooting up and down her side.  With her arm slung around Evie’s shoulder and Evie’s arm around her waist, she somehow managed to hobble the short distance to where the purple bike was parked.  Mal wasn’t entirely sure how she ended up on the seat with her helmet on, she felt like she very well may have blacked out for a second or two, but she did know that she was suddenly very grateful to herself for having taught Evie how to ride the scooter.  
  
“Just hang on, we’ll be at the school before you know it,” Evie said.  
  
Mal, feeling like a walking bruise, had no objections to slumping forward and hanging on.  Wasting no time, Evie revved up Mal’s bike, and then they were zipping back through the forest, on the path to Auradon Prep.

* * *

“Broken??” Mal and Evie blurted together.  
  
“Fractured,” the school nurse cooly corrected.  
  
“Synonym,” Evie’s expression took on a very Mal-like glower as she stared down the nurse, demanding an elaboration with her eyes.  
  
“With a fall like that, you’re lucky  _all_  you did was fracture a rib,” the nurse went on.   
  
“How do you fix a fractured rib?  Does she need to go into the city, to a hospital?  She doesn’t need some kind of surgery, does she??”  
  
“It’ll heal on its own.  Takes about three to six weeks.”  
  
“Is  _that_  all?” Mal rolled her eyes, essentially the only pain-free gesture she could manage.  
  
“So what do we do now??” Evie asked, a little too intensely.  
  
“Now, Mal takes it easy.  I’ll talk to Fairy Godmother; even with painkillers you should stay out of class for the first week until it gets easier for you to move.”  
  
Even though Mal was a teenager and wouldn’t turn down the chance to miss a little school, in just the few weeks since her first transformation she’d grown very attached to what limitless freedom felt like through her flying, and the thought of being cooped up in the dorm day in and day out was not appealing to her.  
  
The nurse sent Mal on her way with said painkillers, some ice packs, and strict instructions not to overexert herself (but no wheelchair, despite Evie’s vehement insistence that one was needed).  Mal kept a tight hold on Evie’s hand as they shuffled down the halls together, and after what felt like forever they made it to their dorm room. Evie sat her down on the bed and had the pillow propped up behind her in seconds.  Mal held her breath as she leaned back, trying yet failing to get comfortable.  Evie honed right in on the scrunched up expression contorting Mal’s face.  
  
“What?  What’s wrong?” she questioned.  
  
“Well, broken rib comes to mind.”  
  
Evie disappeared into the bathroom just long enough to grab a soft washcloth, wrapping it around an ice pack as she returned to Mal’s bedside.  
  
“Stay still,” she said gently.  
  
“Like I have any other choice.”  
  
Evie lifted Mal’s dusty shirt and pressed the ice pack to her side, feeling Mal tense up from the cold.  
  
“What the heck am I supposed to do for three weeks, Evie?” she questioned.  
  
“Chill.  Relax.  Enjoy a break from school.   _Not_  sneak out for late night flying practice.  You’ll be okay, M.  I’ll be right here.  She was right, the way you crashed, it could’ve been a lot worse.  I’m so glad that a few scrapes and a messed up rib is all that came out of it.  Here, hold this.”  
  
Mal reached around with the arm on her good side to keep the ice pack in place as Evie took her hand away from it.  
  
“You know we need a better story than ‘Mal crashed into a tree to avoid running into some birds’,” Mal said as she sat and had her shoes untied by Evie.  "Tell people I fought that creepy thing that lives on top of Bald Mountain.“  
  
"I’m not telling people that,” Evie chuckled, tugging off Mal’s shoes and neatly placing them under the bed.  
  
There was a quick knocking on the door, then Jay and Carlos came into the room.  
  
“Hey, heard you guys came back to campus looking way worse for the wear.  What happened?” Carlos asked, his eyes going straight for the banged up VK.  
  
“I fought that creepy thing that lives on top of Bald Mountain,” Mal quickly said.  
  
“You did not,” Evie shook her head, resting her hand on top of Mal’s free one and gliding her thumb back and forth across the soft skin there.  "Our Mal had an ungraceful landing out in the forest today.“  
  
Jay only got out a split second of a snicker before the stern look on Evie’s face shut him right up.  
  
"That sucks, Mal,” he said with an embarrassed cough.  "You good?“  
  
"She will be,” Evie’s demeanor changed in an instant when she turned to Mal and smiled.  "M, you should have some food before you take those painkillers.  I’ll run down to the dining hall and get you something.“  
  
"E, you don’t have to—”  
  
“Be right back.”  
  
Evie met the boys’ eyes on her way out of the room, exchanging a wordless agreement with them that they were to stay there and keep an eye on Mal until she got back.  
  
“…I can’t believe that out of the four of us,  _I’m_  the first one to crack a rib,” Mal grumbled.  
  
“I would’ve guessed Jay,” Carlos agreed, shrugging.  
  
Evie seemed to be taking an oddly long time to get to the dining hall and back, but Jay had the flatscreen on within minutes and the trio grew too distracted with the television to really question her whereabouts.  It wasn’t until she came back through the door nearly fifteen minutes later that she had Mal’s undivided attention.  
  
Only Evie would know to return to her side with a sandwich and a bowl full of strawberries.  
  
“Did you know,” she began, tone triumphant, “that if you ask the King of Auradon for something nicely enough, he will happily give it to you?”  
  
Mal frowned.  
  
“You asked Ben for a bowl of strawberries?” she missed the point entirely.  
  
“No, I asked Ben to be excused from class for the week, because a certain best friend of mine is on bedrest and needs to be kept company.”  
  
“…You did that for me?”   
  
“You know I did.  You’re an Isle girl, you’ll go crazy stuck in one place for too long, and you’ll need a friendly face.”  
  
“More than one,” Jay added.  "Carlos and I will swing by and keep you company too.“  
  
Evie was careful as she sat down next to Mal, careful not to rustle the bed and jar her too much.  
  
"Now eat, so you can take your medicine,” Evie set the plate on Mal’s lap and the bowl right beside her.  
  
Carlos and Jay were expecting some kind of retort, some bit of sass or sarcasm from the still-rough edges of Mal that didn’t take to being babied no matter how much she was softened in Auradon.  They weren’t expecting Mal to meet Evie’s concerned eyes with a tiny smile and utter a complacent “Yes ma'am”.  
  
There was a moment of awkward fumbling as Mal, with only one fully mobile arm, struggled to keep the ice pack against her ribs and free up her hand to eat.  
  
“…Okay, no,” Evie muttered, realizing in seconds that this wasn’t going to work.  
  
She took the plate back, ignoring Mal’s pout, and tore off a bite-sized piece of sandwich to feed it to her.  
  
“Aw come on, Mal.  It can’t hurt  _that_ bad,” Jay said.  
  
“No?  Let’s give you a matching broken rib and we’ll see.”  
  
“No roughhousing,” Evie flatly said, getting another bite of sandwich ready.  
  
“Don’t worry, Mal will be good as new in no time,” Carlos waved her off.  
  
“Yeah, E will make sure of that,” Mal agreed with a teasing grin.

* * *

Saturday, Mal had broken a rib.

Sunday, she decided to have a go at Sleeping Beauty’s record for “Longest Nap Ever”.  
  
As a kid from The Isle, where words like “legitimate healthcare” were non-existent, saying Mal’s system had no idea how to handle painkillers was putting it very, very mildly.    
  
At the end of the school day, when Carlos and Jay came to pay a visit, they found a poor Evie trapped on the bed with a very unconscious Mal nestled in her lap, slumped back against her chest.  
  
“It hurts her too much if she isn’t propped up just right,” Evie explained with a whisper.  "…Also, I can’t feel my arms. I haven’t moved in five hours.  You guys wanna go get me something to eat?“  
  
The boys laughed quietly to themselves as they turned around to head back out the door and to the dining hall.  
  
Mal snored herself awake a couple minutes after, wincing as she did so.  
  
"Easy, Mal…” Evie said softly, willing the feeling back to her arms to steady her.  
  
Awake, but not entirely there.  
  
“The mice have the wand…” Mal murmured, eyelids fluttering shut again.  "…They sewed it a nice little dress…“  
  
Evie had to stifle a laugh so she wouldn’t jolt Mal.  
  
"What color is this dress?” she asked, playing along while Mal still clung to the last dwindling threads of consciousness.  
  
“Blue…no, pink.  No, purple.  Blue 'n purple.  Blue 'n purple go nice together…”  
  
Man, those painkillers were doing a number on her.  
  
“…They do go well together, don’t they?” Evie agreed, wearing a warm smile that Mal couldn’t see with her closed eyes.  
  
“I like blue…”  
  
“Do you?”  
  
“…Yeah.  I like blue…”   
  
“Go back to sleep, Mal,” Evie held in a second, more gentle laugh.  
  
“…'Kay.”  
  
And just like that, she was out again.  
  
The nurse had suggested that Mal  _not_ just sit in bed all day, but seeing as the girl was Miss Can’t-Even-Breathe-Without-Some-Sort-of-Pain, Evie made an executive veto on that suggestion and started off Monday by sauntering into the dorm with an arm full of movies she’d checked out from the library.  Jay had drills to run with the R.O.A.R. team after school, so it was Carlos alone who stopped by that afternoon to see Mal.  
  
“How’s the patient doing?” he joked, lounging out on Evie’s bed as Evie was across the room, parked on Mal’s.  
  
“Hating this,” Mal grumbled, fixing the tv with a glare.  
  
“The library has all these animated movies about the heroes of Auradon, and Mal is not appreciating this rendition of Sleeping Beauty,” Evie told him.  
  
“My mother looks nothing like that,” Mal gestured in irritation at the tv, which tugged at her side and wrenched a little yelp from her.  
  
“What did I tell you about sitting still?”   
  
“To do it?”  
  
“So why aren’t you?”  
  
“Because I’m a rebel.”  
  
Evie huffed and got up from the bed, grabbing an ice pack from the mini-fridge.  
  
Carlos glanced over just in time to catch the contented little smile Mal flashed as Evie pressed the ice pack to her side.  
  
Tuesday, Evie came back to the dorm with a lunch tray from the dining room to find Mal halfway off the bed, breathing too heavily for comfort and sporting a flushed red face.  
  
“M!   _What_  are you doing??”  
  
Evie set the tray down on the desk and sped over, hands around Mal’s waist and shoulders to help her settle back against the pillows.  
  
“Going stir-crazy, probably,” Mal said through clenched teeth, her side on fire.    
  
“Mal, it’s only been four days!”  
  
“And I’m still stir-crazy!”  
  
Mal wasn’t in a position to physically protest, so she had no choice but to let Evie sit her back down.  
  
“Hey, if you want to get out, then we’ll get out,” Evie’s tone had changed to show concern, the aftermath of panic, and care all at once.  "We can take walks around campus, you can stretch your legs, but not by yourself, okay?“  
  
She smoothed back the hair from Mal’s face.  
  
"You’re going to hurt yourself, Mal, really.  It’s amazing that none of us have gotten hurt like this before, this is kind of a first for us, but you have to take it easy.  Don’t make this worse on yourself.”  
  
It took a little bit of effort, but Mal sighed.  
  
“…Sorry, E.  I wasn’t trying to upset you.”  
  
“I’m not upset,” Evie assured her.  "I just want you to get better.“  
  
Mal’s eyes widened almost imperceptibly and fixed themselves firmly on Evie’s face.  
  
”…What?“ Evie asked.  
  
Mal realized she was staring, giving a little shake of her head to snap herself out of it.  
  
"Sorry, it’s just…that sounds a lot different when you say it,” she smiled.  
  
It sounded a lot different when Maleficent said it, too.  
  
There was rain on Wednesday, a very rare sight in picture perfect Auradon.  It put a literal damper on Evie’s plan to get Mal to try and make a walk to the courtyard, but didn’t stop them from going to Plan B and just walking the halls inside.  
  
“Does it really still hurt that badly?” Evie asked, keeping a firm grip on Mal’s hands as she hoisted her to her feet.  
  
“Saying it hurts even worse doesn’t seem like a stretch right about now,” Mal spoke through clenched teeth.  
  
“…Maybe I should take you back to the nurse,” Evie fretted, eyeing the bed like she was going to cancel the walk and sit Mal back down on it.  
  
“She can’t do anything else, E.  I just have to deal with it.”  
  
“…Alright.  Then let’s go.”  
  
They walked slowly down the halls, as deep breathing was still a thing Mal couldn’t do very well and Evie didn’t want her to exert herself to the point of taking deep breaths.  Every couple minutes was punctuated with an “Are you okay?” with a following nod from Mal or a “Do you need to rest?” with a following head shake.  With everyone in class the halls remained relatively empty, Evie didn’t have to swerve her best friend out of the way at every twist and turn to avoid hordes of students.  But her anxiety built the further they got away from the dorm, because the further away they were, the further they’d have to walk back when Mal needed to stop. She mentally cursed the school nurse for not heeding her inquiries about wheelchairs.  
  
Mal noticed, the way Evie’s fingers curled tighter and tighter around hers with every step.  
  
“…E.”  
  
“What?” Evie answered a little too quickly.  "Do we need to go back?“  
  
"No, it’s just…thanks, Evie.  I know it’s not easy for you to miss all this class…it means a lot that you’re here taking care of me.”  
  
“…You’re welcome, Mal.  School is great, not gonna lie…but I’d rather be with you.”  
  
There was something like a flutter in Mal’s chest, knocking the wind out of her and sending her into a tiny coughing fit that was sheer agony against her rib.  
  
“Whoa, whoa, alright,” Evie rubbed her back and swung her around in the direction they’d come from.  "Time for a break.“  
  
"Have I mentioned that I hate this?” Mal groaned.  
  
“On several various occasions.”  
  
Thursday, after downing her aspirin: an experiment.  Even when bored to tears, Mal had kept herself from drawing, not wanting to risk the discomfort the use of her hand and arm on her bad side might cause.  But today, an experiment.  
  
“And…to the right,” Mal said.  
  
Evie turned accordingly, her dress spiraling around with her.  It was a fun change of pace, being someone else’s model instead of having them model for her.  
  
“E, I told you to stop moving your head,” Mal smiled.  
  
It was imperceptible, but not to Mal’s watchful eyes, the way Evie kept looking over to gauge her expression, searching for little signs of pain or aches.  
  
“How are you doing?” Evie asked.  
  
“Fantastic.  But then again, I’m about 90% painkiller right now,” Mal managed a chuckle. “And I get a little bit better everytime you ask me that.”  
  
Evie’s smile lit up the room.  
  
“How does it look?” she wondered.  
  
“Beautiful.”  
  
“No surprise there, you know what you’re doing when it comes to pencil and paper.”  
  
Mal ducked her eyes down to her sketchbook, realizing too late that Evie had been inquiring about the drawing.  
  
“That’s me, ever the artist,” she said, rescuing herself from the situation.  
  
Friday morning saw Mal in Evie’s lap again, sitting quietly as she had her hair brushed by Evie.  Jay and Carlos came in before school started, asking if making Friday night pizza night was good with the girls.  Carlos talked toppings while Jay’s attention was fixed on Mal and the way her eyes glazed over more and more with each stroke of the brush.  In the midst of the pizza talk, Mal’s stomach growled loud enough to interrupt Carlos.  
  
“…Ready to head down to breakfast?” Evie asked, keeping a laugh at bay.  
  
“…Sure,  _or_ , you could grab something from the dining hall and we could have breakfast here,” Mal not-so-slyly suggested.  
  
“That I can do,” Evie said with a smile.  
  
She maneuvered it so that the moment she got up pillows took her place behind Mal, keeping her upright and as comfortable as she could be.  Evie invited the boys to the impromptu dorm breakfast, but upon opting to leave Mal and Evie to themselves and eating in the dining room, Evie instead drafted them into babysitting Mal until she got back.  The two VKs were burning holes in their leader with their eyes the second the door shut.  
  
“…What?” Mal frowned.  
  
“I know you’re in pain, but since when do you jump at the chance to play Little Miss Helpless Bring Me Breakfast In Bed?” Carlos asked.  
  
“I don’t even know what that means.”  
  
“It means cracked rib or no cracked rib, you sure seem to be enjoying your quality time with Evie,” Jay smirked, leaning back against the wall.  
  
“And why wouldn’t I?  It’s nice to be taken care of,” Mal said defensively, the pout in her tone contradicting the gentle innocence of her words.  
  
Carlos caught on to Jay’s impish and teasing grin.  
  
“Jay and I could’ve taken care of you.  But I’m not so sure you would’ve thought it was as nice as being taken care of by Evie,” he said, flashing his own mischievous grin.  
  
They looked like utter clowns, standing there and staring her down.  Mal’s eyes flicked back and forth from Jay to Carlos, Jay to Carlos.  She was sorely missing the ability to sternly cross her arms.  
  
“…So I like her.  Big deal.”  
  
The boys exchanged a knowing look with each other.  Bingo.  
  
“You gonna tell her?” Carlos wondered.  
  
Mal narrowed her eyes.  
  
“And why would I do that?”  
  
“Because she’s a genius and she’s just going to figure it out anyway.”  
  
“…She will not,” Mal denied.

* * *

Saturday, Mal had broken a rib.  
  
Six weeks later, she had taken flight once more.  
  
Back outside the forest, under the watchful eye of Evie, who clutched tightly at the trunk of a tree, fearing Mal would come crashing down at any second.  But she circled the forest once, twice, three times, dove down and propelled upwards, maneuvered perfectly through the sky.  To Evie’s relief, she came down soon enough, sticking a much better landing this time and settling in almost daintily on her claws.  The dragon went up in a puff of purple, and Mal returned with that radiant smile of hers.  
  
“That was amazing!” Evie gushed, breathing again when Mal’s feet were firmly on the ground.  
  
She was right there in front of Mal in no time, holding her still and running a hand along her ribcage.  
  
“How did everything hold up?” Evie asked.  
  
“Pretty well, it looks like.  Guess I’m all healed.”  
  
Evie seemed even more thrilled than Mal at her recovery.  Mal suddenly found herself completely lost in those warm eyes of hers.  
  
“…E, can I tell you something?” she started, her hands easily finding Evie’s.  
  
“Of course you can,” Evie smiled brightly.  
  
Well, in theory.  
  
“…Evie, I really don’t know what I would’ve done without you for this past month and a half.  Gone crazy, probably,” Mal laughed nervously.  "But I had you to take care of me, and spend time with me, and it was…so nice.  And yeah, we always spend time together, but…this was  _so_  nice.“  
  
More nervous laughter, her eyes darting both to and away from Evie’s face.  
  
"Okay, look, I guess what I’m really trying to say is—”  
  
Mal didn’t need to stumble and stammer out what she was trying to say, because Evie leaned in with a quiet laugh to kiss Mal on her cheek.  
  
“…Mal, I know you have a lot of them, but you don’t have to break a rib every time you want my attention,” she said in Mal’s ear.  "Next time, just ask me out.“  
  
Man, it was a good thing Mal could fly again.  
  
For suddenly she felt like soaring.


End file.
